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SignsXM Launches with Out-of-the-Box Lumpy Mail

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BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

CustomXM added a new division, SignsXM. It wanted to find a unique way to announce its new offerings which included all types of wide format printing, including banners, signage, wall graphics, vehicle graphics and more. CustomXM also wanted to use a cross media, multi-channel approach that would drive results and illustrate CustomXM’s marketing capabilities.

The SignsXM Awesome Banner Thingy Campaign: Complete with personalized box, envelope, personalized mini-banner and a fun-to-follow instruction sheet below. The inside of the box lid had a QR code that led to a fun video

 

RESULTS

CustomXM created a unique, dimensional mail piece that included a personalized mini-banner for all recipients. CustomXM encouraged recipients of their “Awesome Banner Thingys” to post photos on Instagram, which would qualify them for entry into a prize drawing.

420 pieces were mailed to prospects and current clients of CustomXM. Over 12% of recipients responded and completed the online survey. Additionally, over 13% of the recipients posted photos of their Awesome Banner Thingys on  Instagram accounts. Many of these respondents were a different subset than those that responded to the online survey.

The campaign received quite a bit of social media buzz and accolades from local ad agencies. It immediately led to meetings and opportunities for signage and direct mail proposals for clients and prospects. Many of these opportunities led to new business within the first three weeks of the campaign.

This campaign also received national recognition by receiving two Bennys awarded by the Print Industries of America during their Premier Print Awards, an international print competition.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The targeted audience was current clients and prospects of CustomXM.

SOLUTION ARCHITECTURE

At CustomXM, they like to market themselves a little differently. They like to use the marketing tools they are constantly advocating, and they like to have a little fun. They accomplished all this and more with their “Awesome Banner Thingy” campaign.

Recently, CustomXM added wide format services to their offerings. They even created a separate division, SignsXM. But they felt that it wouldn’t be enough just to tell folks about these new services, it would be better to show them. And have them show others.

To engage its target audience, CustomXM developed a dimensional mailer – an 8” x 8” x 1.25” box complete with a personalized label informing recipients that a “surprise” was inside. Inside the box was the following:

  • A personalized envelope and note card introducing the new division and services.
  • An instruction sheet showing recipients how to put together their own Awesome Banner Thingy
  • A QR Code that linked to a video explaining how to construct the Awesome Banner Thingy
  • The actual Awesome Banner Thingy which was a 3.25” x 7.5” vinyl banner, personalized with the recipient’s name, complete with a grommet and very tiny banner stand.

To encourage responses recipients were given two opportunities to participate in a prize contest

  • By visiting their personalized website and completing a survey
  • By sharing a photo of their Awesome Banner Thingy on Instagram
box_campaign_INSTAshots

Above:  photos posted by Box Thingy recipients. Recipients were asked to post photos of their banner-thingys on Instagram with the hashtag #thinkitsignit. The Instagramers were entered into 3 different sets of drawings for prizes and winners were announced via Instagram videos.

 

REASONS FOR SUCCESS

The main reason for success was a clever design and personalized promotion.

 

Article courtesy of W. Caslon & Company, 2015, PODi.org

Garver Quarterly Newsletter

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Garver produces a quarterly newsletter, IQ (Infrastructure Quarterly), for its clients and prospects. In response to increasing production costs and providing customers and prospects with more interactive content, Garver created an online version of their newsletter. A multi-touch campaign incorporating print and email was developed to announce the new IQ digital edition to readers. It drove recipients to a personalized URL where they were asked to complete an online survey determining the delivery preferences (print or digital) of recipients and to find out which topic areas interested readers the most. Garver achieved a 12% response rate. They also discovered 78.3% of the readership was interested in receiving the new digital version.garver_newsletter2

 

Arkansas Democrat Gazette uses pURLS to up subscriptions

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The Arkansas Democrat Gazette is a daily newspaper reaching more than 600,000 people throughout the state. It is the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi River.

The newspaper was losing approximately 3,500 subscriptions per month. They were looking for a strategy to encourage these former subscribers to come back to the paper and renew their subscriptions. Their previous efforts at static direct mail were returning less than a 1% success rate.

Utilizing CustomXM’s integrated cross-media campaign tools, postcards with PURLs (Personalized URLs) were sent to a database of dropped subscribers, encouraging them to go to a microsite where they could register for a grand prize and re-subscribe.

The campaign ran for three months. A response was considered someone who renewed their subscription.

  • July 2010 – 1.5% response rate
  • August 2010 – 2.0% response rate
  • September 2010 – 2.0% response rate

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was very happy with results, especially considering the difficult audience that was being targeted – people who had already said “no” to the paper